


Satisfaction from just one man

by noxelementalist



Series: The Troubles of Dean Forester [3]
Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Banter, First Time, M/M, Meet-Cute, Walmart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:05:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21837025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noxelementalist/pseuds/noxelementalist
Summary: In which a pair of pajamas is incredibly useful.
Relationships: Dean Forester/Jess Mariano
Series: The Troubles of Dean Forester [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1958110
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	Satisfaction from just one man

**Author's Note:**

> Set after Season 3, Episode 7 "They shoot Gilmores, don't they?", during the events of Episode 8's "Let the Games Begin." As in, all of this happens while Rory is off at Yale. The events of the night after her trip to Yale, including the formal start of her relationship with Jess, have yet to occur.

Most Walmarts, Jess was sure, were busier than this. At least, that was his impression from all the stories he’d heard back in New York from his mom. Stories of massive swarms of people forcing overworked and underpaid employees to fight through the warehouses because someone just _had _to have the newest Nintendo or specialty Lord of The Rings collector edition DVD.

But Stars Hollows wasn’t where his mom was from, and it definitely wasn’t New York, which meant that things were pretty slow, and painfully so during the day. Not as slow as he was sure English was going- he’d already read The Dharma Bums twice before and knew that the essay on it wasn’t going to be bad to write- but slow enough that Jess could get away with driving the forklift to move boxes that really didn’t need much movement at all out onto the floor.

It was almost meditative, in a way, like driving downtown late at night through Stars Hollow town square back to Luke’s, if that was indoors and during daylight.

_Yep, just me and my forklift_, Jess thought. _Life is good._

“Wha-Jess?” a voice said.

Jess glanced down to his left. Standing there was a tall, beanpole of a teenager in jeans and a Stars Hollows Patriots hoodie.

_Dammit._

“Hello Dean,” Jess said smoothly, parking the forklift right where it was in the aisle. “Welcome to Walmart. How can I help you?”

“I was looking for pajamas and they said to head towards the back—”

“Pajamas?”

“Yeah?”

“You ran out of _pajamas_.”

“I don’t always wear jeans,” Dean said back to him.

“Why not say it a little louder?” Jess teased. “Think we’d all like to know what else you’ve got wrapped around those legs of yours.”

“It’s you guys who ran out on the floor," Dean said instead.

“Right, because the jammies are always the first to go.”

“What are you doing here Jess?

“I’m driving a forklift.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in English?”

“Aren’t _you_ supposed to be at school?”

Dean smirked. “Got the day off,” he replied. “That dance marathon really wore everybody out, you know?”

“Right,” Jess said hurriedly, deciding it would be better not to relive what had been an exhausting night. “That’s why I’m here. Extra hours and all.”

“Same,” Dean said. “I’ll probably be stuck at Doose’s way late tonight—”

“Okay, but seriously, you’re looking for pajamas.”

“Yeah, I’m looking for pajamas, Jess.”

“I’m pretty sure the only ones we got left are in the warehouse,” Jess told him. “If you want you can follow me back.”

“No rides in the forklift?” Dean said as Jess turned the forklift back on.

“We don’t violate OSHA around here!” Jess said loudly over the sound of the forklift’s beeping as he turned it around.

“Seriously?” Dean said back. Jess didn’t look behind him- the forklift training had been very clear on _not _looking behind you while you drive- but the nearness of Dean’s voice told him the other guy was in fact walking after him, and fairly close by at that.

“Seriously!”

***

“So Doose’s doesn’t carry clothes.”

“Nope, just food.”

“Wow, guess that’s strike one for the mom and pop store.”

“You really working here?” Dean said as Jess parked the forklift, making sure to lower its fork all the way to the ground before turning it off. “I thought you worked at Luke’s.”

“Yeah, well, I do both,” Jess told him as hopped off the carriage onto the floor. “I’ve got a car to pay for, and Luke doesn’t pay me that much.”

“I hear that,” Dean said. “Jackson won’t pay me that much either.”

“Screw the man, am I right?”

"Yeah, if it’s me."

“Why Dean, I didn’t know you felt like that.”

“I—”

“I’m flattered, of course, but not on the work floor,” Jess said, turning around to lead Dean towards where the boxes of pajamas were kept. “That’s just tacky.”

“Right,” Dean said. “The forklift operator’s worried about being _tacky_.”

“Excuse you, you think they just let anybody drive one of these?” Jess said, pointing to the lift.

“Well, yeah,” Dean said. “It’s not like you need a high school dip-”

“Hey, hey, ix-nay on the ploma-dinay,” Jess hissed back. “These folks thing I’m working on my GED.”

“Oh, so more lying huh?”

“Well some people just can’t handle the truth big guy.”

“Whatever you say Maverick. Where are we going anyway?” Dean asked as they began walking down a hallway.

“I’m taking the back way to the jammies,” Jess told him, turning to the left to push open a door and walk into the small aisle that ran behind the store goods into the warehouse.

“You’re not going to get in trouble?”

“Dean, it’s _Walmart_,” Jess said. “They don’t know what anybody at any one time is doing. As long as you stick close to me, and we keep our heads down, we’ll be fine.”

“Right, we’ll just sneak through,” Dean replied, hunching down as he followed Jess.

Jess rolled his eyes. “Come on, pajamas are in aisle G9.”

***

“So I think I’m going with blue,” Dean said.

Jess felt himself relax from where he stood leaning against the aisle end. They’d found the boxes, but it had taken Dean a little bit longer than Jess had thought it would to pick which he wanted to wear, and even he knew that store managers weren’t going to wait for thirty minutes for teenagers to clothes shop.

Not that it had been a purely bad wait. Dean staring at the different patterns had given Jess a chance to look him over, and he’d found himself thinking Dean…wasn’t so bad to look at.

_That wasn’t a pass he made earlier_, Jess reminded himself. _And you’re in Stars Hollows, not New York._

But that didn’t stop Jess from realizing that- given half a moment when they weren’t fighting over Rory- he could see how Rory could’ve been into the big hands, floppy hair, and wide shoulders Jess could tell would probably one day become even broader ones if Dean ever actually took his workout off the football field and into a gym. It almost made Jess feel self-conscious, to be standing there in his jeans with a black t-shirt and bright, uniform regulated Walmart vest.

“Blue’s a good color,” Jess said to Dean aloud. “Better grab that to go and head back to football or biology homework whatever.”

“AP physics, you ass, and I don’t have any,” Dean replied easily, and Jess wondered at what point Dean had gotten that comfortable around him. “I actually finished my homework ahead of time, thanks.”

“Oh, is that why mommy and daddy let you go all the way out of town to grab jammies?”

“When was the last time you even _spoke_ with your mommy and daddy?”

“Last week over the phone with Mom,” Jess told him. “Years, with Dad.”

Dean looked up at Jess, a concerned look on his face. “…Right,” he said at last, folding what Jess saw was a pair of blue and white plaid pajamas over his hand. “Sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

“For making the obvious low blow?”

“Did you know?”

“What?”

Jess absolutely did not find the fact that Dean Forrester apparently crinkled his forehead when he was confused adorable. _What, is he a puppy_?

“Did you know that my dad left me when I was a baby?” Jess said aloud, his voice just soft enough to not echo in the warehouse, though it felt large enough to fill the space.

“No.”

“Then you didn’t make a low blow.”

“Guess not.”

Jess sighed. “Now come on, let’s get you back out where the civilians go.”

“That’s where they actually make you _pay _for stuff right?”

“Yes it is,” Jess said.

“Awesome.”

“Pretty sure Walmart agrees with you.”

Dean smirked. “I guess,” he said simply.

For a moment the two teenagers walked in quiet, slowly working their way towards the front of the warehouse.

“Hey, uh, thanks for helping me get this,” Dean said.

“...No problem?”

“No,” Dean said, shaking his head. “I really do mean thanks. I kinda wore out my last pair in the washer, and it was getting really awkward sleeping in my boxers.”

“I hear you,” Jess replied. “Private time is rough when you’ve got family living in the room next to you.”

“Private time?”

“You know, _private._”

“Ah-oh. _Oh. _Yeah,” Dean said, starting to blush. “No, that actually isn’t a problem for me, I’ve-I’ve got my own bathroom.”

“Right on.”

“Not that I- I mean, I don’t-”

“Hey, everybody does right?”

“Do you?”

_Let’s shock Chicago boy. _“Daily,” Jess told him. “You?’

“…Not daily.”

“Aw, Dean.”

“Look, it’s- I can’t get the grip right, okay?” Dean grumbled.

_He’s adorable_, Jess thought to himself. “Want me to lend a hand?” Jess said to him teasingly.

“Yeah, sure,” Dean said flatly. “How about I lend you mine first and then we swap?”

Jess almost responded, but then saw the look in Dean’s eyes. It was a look Jess remembered seeing twice before. Once had been on the face of an ex-boyfriend who claimed Jess was his first boyfriend, and once on his own face when he had been twelve and trying out cheesy pick-up lines in front of the mirror in the hopes of impressing his own first girlfriend.

It was a look, Jess knew, that meant Dean was being perfectly serious, but wanted the plausible deniability of making a joke in place just in case Jess said no.

So instead of responding, Jess hummed thoughtfully, slowing down so that he could stand next to Dean as they walked instead of in front of him as he debated whether he should take Dean up on it.

It took an embarrassingly short time to reach a decision.

“Hey Dean,” Jess said, coming to a stop right before the door in front of where the bend out of the alleyway and back into the hallway into the store began. From where they stood customers still couldn’t see them, and Jess knew from one (incredibly awkward) experience of running into one of his coworkers and her fiancée that it was a surprisingly noise-blocking, secluded spot.

“Yeah?” Dean replied.

“Deal,” Jess said, and moving on instinct he turned around and kissed Dean where the other man stood in the aisle behind him.

Dean tasted like breakfast, like milk and pancakes, but his lips must’ve been glossed over because Jess could’ve sworn strawberries weren’t in season. It was a sweet taste, light. Dean tasted like someone who you could take home, like he had just walked out of one of the dime-store Nicholas Sparks novels stacked up against the Harlequins in the book aisle.

It made Jess want more, and Jess felt himself shifting in, pressing Dean back more firmly against the wall of the warehouse just hard enough to make Dean groan softly.

_Jesus, no wonder Rory wouldn’t let this guy go_, Jess thought absently, shifting to bite Dean’s neck.

“Jess,” Dean whispered.

“Hmmm.”

“Jess,” Dean hissed. “I can’t show up at home with a _hickey_.”

“You sure?” Jess said after a moment, twisting his head from where it was on Dean’s shoulder to look at the other man’s face. “Because I think you can.”

“I think my ex-girlfriend would hate that.”

“I’m pretty sure your ex-girlfriend _would_ approve of us making up. Hell, she’d probably approve of us making up _a lot_.”

“Making _out_ isn’t- ah!- _how_ are you _still_-”

“Because _I want to,_” Jess said, stepping forward to grind against Dean. “Pretty sure you do too. And I bet if we do this right, a lot, we may even get through graduation without killing each other.”

“This is so wrong,” Dean muttered, even as arms began to wrap around Jess’ waist. “Stars Hollows isn’t Chicago you know, we can’t just hook up in the Walmart parking lot during the day. Rory alone will probably kill the both of us, if everybody else doesn't first.”

“It’s not New York, there is this thing called evening shifts, and seriously, I think Rory would want the _tape_,” Jess replied, nipping at the skin right along Dean’s collarbone. “Besides, haven’t you heard grocery boy? I’m the _bad guy_.”

“You- oh that is _it,_” Dean growled, and with a twist turned Jess around and pressing him back.

_Worth it_, Jess thought as Dean pressed into him, one hand cradling the back of Jess’ head, carding fingers through his hair as it pulled Jess closer, while the other hand tried to slide down into Jess’ pants. _So worth it._

[And if, later, Dean found himself telling his parents that he’d spilled some coffee creamer on his jeans and that was why he was wearing his newly bought pajamas home, well, at least Dean managed not to flush too brightly as he remembered what really happened.]

**Author's Note:**

> This is the third piece that came out of me wanting to write Gilmore Girls slash fic this past year (I...could wrap them up in a series? If folks thinks that's helpful?). 
> 
> I'll admit, I'm...a little unsure I hit all of the buttons in this fic I was aiming for, but since I've seriously got to write, like, a mini-Nanowrimo between now and February, I'm going to call it and post it as it is. 
> 
> Apparently, we die like Gilmores around here: unbeta-ed and minimally described.


End file.
